Not Bad - Rated 
I was really looking forward to this book and I did enjoy it. It is very nostalgic and took me back to my own childhood in the 70's - I'm a couple of years older than the author. Ultimately though, if it wasn't for the Jam/Weller collection, then this book would never have been published as really it's just the recollections of "an ordinary joe".
Keep the faith - Rated 
This book is about me. I wondered where the hell I could get hold of a Heinz Tomato soup apron. I got the school library to order George Orwell books which I took out and never read but took care to leave them lying on my desk so everyone would think I had.I got a kicking from greasers after the 1981 school Christmas disco (I was devastated when my mum washed the blood out of my parka) Paul (and Bruce and Rick and Jimmy out of Quadrophenia) were gods to me and this book gets as close as I reckon you can get to what it was like to be a teenage Jam fan in the early 80s. And don't take it too seriously...eh?
OMG - Rated 
I am shocked and can't believe that someone I went to school with, was in the same year as, as could write such an hilarious book. I will give Dave a bit of artistic licence with some of his anecdotes (he will know which they are). I remember all to well The Jam coming on at youthy and all the lads running into dance to them, whilst the girls stood around giggling. A really good read, and more so as I was there at the time. Would definitely recommend
If it could be interesting it would be a START! - Rated 
Deathly dull novel.
I adore books like this. By that I mean books by Andrew Collins, Stuart Maconie, Mark Radcliffe or even Nick Hornby. Books that depict the obsessive nature we blokes have when it comes to music. I was sold by the tag line that this book was in the great traditon of Andrew Collins and Where Did It All Go Right
Well, it wasnt. So were did it all go wrong?
Well for a start there is far too much of the author in this and not enough of his musical obsession. Frankly if I'd have wanted to know how foolish teenagers can be I'd have re-read my diaries. As it is Mr Lines comes across as a spectacularly foolis teenager who appears to have issues bordering on mental instability.
The alleged core of his book is his love of Weller, The Jam, The Style Council and the mod way of life. But all too brief are the explained reasons as to why Weller was so important to him. Just repeating a passage along the lines (no pun intended) that he seemed to write about what was going on in his life, doesnt impress Im afraid. Especially when it appears this is another excuse to tell the reader about his raher dull teenage years.
Nor is Mr Lines a mod. If anything it appears he had some sort of homoerotic schoolboy crush on Paul Weller. Witness some rather disturbing tales of teenage erections as he watches him and also in later passages a rather embarrasing description of his first sexual fumbling that is surely written in a way that he hopes to win the bad sex literary awards.
It starts slowly and fails to interest all the way through, towards the end I skim read as I urgently wanted him to get to an interesting point, something he sadly never made.
A great disappointment, a wasted opportunity.
Non-fiction about a boy adoring THE JAM - Rated
I, even a Japanese The Jam freak, could not put down this book once I started reading. The author, David Lines, was born in West Bridgeford in 1967. In 1977 Punk Rock was in its prime all over the UK, even in the small town West Bridgeford, there were many young people with funny coloured hair hanging around. Some had painted 'God save the Queen' on their biker jackets but 10-year-old David had not even heard of SEX PISTOLS. David and his family moved to Leeds when he was 11. David was getting withdrawn into himself in the strange town and had no friends at school. One day the Lines' went picnic to the beach in Scarborough. On the way David came across loads of Mods riding scooters from the car window and thought he wanted to be part of them despite the fact he did not know who they were and even what Mods were. David saw some of them had "The Jam" sprayed on the back. Of course he did not have any idea what "The Jam" was at that time.
Some days after he found "This is the modern world - The Jam" at a local record library and borrowed it just out of curiosity remembering "The Jam" on thier back. From that day his life had completely changed. He found his own brilliant three friends - The Jam - living inside a piece of black vinyl and everything in his life was going with The Jam since then. This book is not the story of The Jam, nor the biography of Paul Weller. This is the Non-fiction about a boy who devoted his life to The Jam and Paul Weller. You must enjoy the story from the point of view of one of The Jam fans well appreciating David Lines if you are also one of The Jam freaks.
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